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The Piano Playing Gene Lives On!

Way back in June 2011, I featured my great grandmother Ophelia Bryant's obituary on this blog. Something happened recently that made me want to revisit it.

She was for many years the organist of St. Stephen church....My daughter's so excited to have started started piano lessons. It seems as if now whenever I pass by her bedroom, I catch a glimpse of ladybug practicing on her keyboard. She's continuing in the tradition of many of the women from my mom's side of the family. The piano was the instrument to learn how to play. In general, I wasn't a rebellious child but for some reason I chose not to learn how to play. My mother plays and has a keyboard in her home. Her mother, Mary Bryant Harrison Horton, played the piano. In fact, she had a piano in her living room and an organ. My grandmother Mary and her sisters learned how to play the piano thanks to their mother, Ophelia. My 2nd great grandmother Jonas Bryant had a piano. I learned about that when I found her probate record a few years ago. Now my little girl is learning. Ah...the piano playing gene lives on!

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My uncle Louis the organ and piano. He and his brother Hugh lived with their mother or eventually their other lived with them, so I saw it whenever we went to my grandmother's. I found out several years ago that she played the piano. I never heard her play though. My mother played beautifully. I took lessons but never really got into it. Wish I had. I didn't like my piano teachers. could have learned to play whatever I wanted though, I did get far enough to have been able to play some on my own. But didn't.

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